NEWARK -- You walk around the through the elementary school about to open in Newark’s West Ward and think “wow” what a bright and shiny new place for the kids. And inside it has with all the modern stuff they need these days. But then, for some reason you start to feel a little uneasy. Is something missing here?

Then it hits you, where’s the playground?

Yes. They built a new school for 257 students - with no place to play.

At least no practical, safe place.

“They messed up,’’ said Gena Ward, a parent.

“I don’t know why they put it there,’’ she says of the school’s problematic location.
It seems that part of the trouble is that the West Ward doesn’t have large available tracts of land to do much of anything with. The kids had to go somewhere and there were no good choices.

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerView of the new Speedway Avenue School from Vaisburg Park across South Orange Ave. The new Speedway Avenue School has computer labs, a music room, a library, a state of the art auditorium. What it doesn't have is a playground for the elementary school kids and no clear way of crossing the kids safely to the building. The school is located on South Orange Avenue right next to the Garden State Parkway.

So the new Speedway Avenue School was built on South Orange Avenue, right by the Garden State Parkway. Cars get a running start there, picking up speed when they get close to the turnoff leading them south to the highway.

It’s a sore spot for parents. They participated in community meetings when the school district and the New Jersey School Development Authority rolled out the plans. Ward remembers being excited by the design, particularly the playground.

So was Irene Walls, a community worker who now has grandkids in the district. Everything sounded good to Janie Thomas, a former teacher. And then their hopes came crashing down by the fourth meeting.

It was bad enough that it was on South Orange Avenue. Now the playground had been scrapped.

What they thought would take place seemed simple. Public housing buildings adjacent to the school would be demolished to build a playground.

SDA spokesman Kevin McElroy said razing Bradley Court buildings was never part of the project. Valerie Merritt, director communication for Newark Public Schools, said district plans called for acquisition of five of the public housing townhouses on North Munn Avenue, but the SDA would not commit to that.

Whatever happened, the parents feel taken. There’s no playground. Well, there is a small space for pre-school and kindergarten children, but it’s too tiny for them. Merritt said the district believes Newark schools should have outdoor recreation and they are looking at what can be done for Speedway.

The parents, don’t get them wrong, appreciate a new school. Many can’t wait to move in. The old Speedway, built in 1916, has no gym, no auditorium, cafeteria or library. The new building does, plus more, like computer and science labs, a dance studio. It’s just that when you build new, you want everything that comes with the word instead of having to feel like you’ve settled.

“I’m angry about it,’’ Thomas said. “I don’t know what to say. The district made promises and changed their mind.’’

School officials thought a pedestrian bridge to Vailsburg Park might solve the recreation and speeding traffic problem. Kids would use it to get to recess and parents would not have to worry about them crossing South Orange Avenue.

As feasible as it sounds, it’s not. Students only get 30 minutes for lunch. By the time they eat, line up and cross the street to the park, they have to come back. Plus, getting the bridge built would have been difficult. The park was upgraded with money from the state’s Green Acres program, which is strict about changes to the landscape of projects it pays for.

Philip A. LiVecchi, director of public works for the county, said the district and SDA approached the county about the bridge well after its plans for a school had been approved. The design, he said, had an elevator and its construction cut into the park, something Green Acres was against.

With no where to play, except for the gym inside, parents still are concerned about kids after school. The school, they say, is too close to the street and there’s no barrier to keep a wayward car off the sidewalk.

“Seventy percent of pedestrian fatalities in Essex County happen in Newark,’’ said Zoe Baldwin, safety advocate for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign in New Jersey. “No one should have to worry about their child getting hit by a speeding car on their way to school.’’

Baldwin says the city and district must slow down the traffic with signage, flashing lights, rumble strips. Something. City officials said signs are going up next week and the One Newark Education Coalition is working on the crossing guard plan.

There will be lots of excitement, fanfare, ooh’s and aaah’s at the grand opening. The community, teachers and staff have been waiting since September for this.